Global Change on the Microscopic Level

Our exposure to technology has not been incremental. We interact with it on an increasingly personal level and it seemed, that with the invention of the computer and Internet, things would only get faster, not stranger. We can now surf the web from practically any point on the globe and stay connected with anyone, anywhere. We can do everything from a little reverse phone lookup to compiling terabytes of data in an instant. Changes in the field of technology have been quick and noticeable as well as exceedingly smaller. It appears that this trend will continue and, in order to notice the changes to our technology in the coming years, one will require the assistance of a microscope to see it.

Nanotechnolgoy is likely to be a benchmark of our collective future. If you’re not familiar with nanotechnology it is, in essence, the science of very small things. Usually smaller than a hundred nanometers, which is really small. A hundred nanometers is the about the equivalent to a thousand atoms across. It appears that bigger isn’t always better and scientists are still trying to understand how pervasive this front in tech development will be. Nanotechnology is a very new science but once it starts to be applied it will evolve fast and will likely affect every aspect of our lives. Whether it is the medial field, to science research, to computers and cars, a new world is about to break through and many people don’t even realize it.

The process behind it is actually simple. It works on the premise that carbon is one of the most versatile particles in the universe. When you get small and take them down to the atomic level, very interesting things start to happen. If you take atomic carbon particles and arrange them in different ways, you get extremely different outcomes. Arranging carbon one way will give you diamonds. Another will give you graphite. The possibilities are limitless and through the use of nanotechnology we’ll, soon be able to alter the atomic ordering of things. In essence, reshaping the very foundation of creation.

It seems that the application process is starting small with a simple battery approach. Apple is currently devising a way to introduce nanotechnology into its power source for future iPhones. Apple hopes to completely get rid of the need to replace batteries. It works by taking the granules inside a battery that are a nanometer in scale, and use nanotechnology to recharge your battery using nothing more than kinetic energy. Scientists also hope to make a battery charge faster and last longer, if not indefinitely. You might even be able to charge your iPhone with as little as the heat/vibrations that comes from the users heartbeat.

This isn’t just for phones and will likely replace older computer systems in a mater of a decade or so. The silicon transistors in your computer will probably be replaced by carbon nanotubes. They will likely power, run, and process your computer and it’s information on a microscopic scale. Eventually everything’s just going to get smaller and smaller and rarely ever need to be recharged.

Eventually, scientists are hoping to develop a way to make nanotechnology self-replicating. This means that, in essence, this would create a self-sustaining mechanism built around cloning itself over and over again towards achieving a specific task. This is likely to be used to great success in diagnosing and operating on patents in the future and will probably extend our life spans by several years if not decades. This isn’t to mention how different the world is likely to look in the next 20 years.